SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY STUDENT NEWSPAPERVolume II Issue 7 March 2010

Emilie SchnabelStaff Writer

Katie HawkinsEditor-in-Chief

SMU’s Sustainability committee sees future plans for a garden behind tennis courts on campus.

While studying in your room, the munchies attack. So, you walk out from the dorms, behind the tennis courts. There – a garden waits, inviting you to take your pick of fresh produce. And you do. After all, this garden is for students, by students. This is the future that the Saint Martin’s Sus-tainability Committee hopes to see materialize within the next year. Recently constructed, the Sustainability Committee is supervised by Chair, Irina Gendelman. President Dr. Heynderickx charged the

Saints look towards community garden on campus

action when Dr. Hashimo-to, professor of Education, brought the idea to his at-tention. The formation of this group in the Saint Mar-tin’s community is part of a growing global movement to make an awareness of the environment a part of ev-eryday decisions. “The idea is to think about how we can be more aware of how we use resources on campus,” says Gendelman. The committee breaks down into three subcommittees: conservation, transportation and the community garden, with the community garden being one of the Sustain-ability Committee’s first major projects.

One of the key inspirations for planting a community garden on Saint Martin’s campus derived from Mi-chelle Obama, who created a garden on White House property to educate against obesity. She hopes to teach kids where food comes from so they can make in-formed decisions. Locally, Evergreen State College and University of Washing-ton, Tacoma, have planted similar gardens. Thus far, the proposed location for the project at Saint Martin's, behind the tennis courts, has been approved by the nec-essary authorities. Gendel-man says that the Sustain-ability Committee is still

discussing fencing to keep deer out and the best type soil preparation, but hope to begin building in March. The garden will empower students and other volun-teers on campus to grow their own food. Along with the community aspect, Gen-delman explains that the Sustainability Committee wants to allow individuals to have their own plots. “How cool would it be to walk outside your dorms and pick some straw-berries?” she described with enthusiasm. The garden will be organic, and Gendel-man feels that local nurseri-

See GARDEN, Page D1

SMU’s Sustainability Committee plans for future

On February 6, 2010, at 8:00 p.m., the Abbey Church was filled to capac-ity for Paul Galbraith, world renowned classical guitar-ist. The audience, made up of all ages from young chil-dren to silver-haired senior citizens, was waiting excit-edly while taking in their surroundings. A raised plat-form was stationed promi-nently in between an eagle-shaped lectern and three heavy candle sticks, and on the platform was a curious square box with two f-holes carved into the side and a gleaming wooden chair. “It’s a good thing nobody advertised in Seattle, other-wise we wouldn’t have got-ten a seat,” a middle-aged woman chuckled as her neighbor nodded in agree-ment. A few Saint Martin’s students and faculty were scattered throughout the au-dience, but most of the au-dience members were com-munity members that had heard of the free world-class concerts the Saint Martin’s Abbey puts on throughout the year and decided to take advantage of the great way to spend a Friday night. The lights dimmed and out walked a confident man dressed in black. Galbraith was carrying a curious look-ing guitar—it was a little larger than to be expected and something about

It is true that many students don’t get to know many engineering majors as their laboratories are in Cebula Hall instead of Old Main. What many students also don’t know is that Cebula Hall houses the office of Dr. Amanie Abdelmessih, Mechanical Engineering professor and Director of Thermal Engineer-ing Laboratory. She has frequently done research for NASA during the summers.

Born in Port-Said and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, she had origi-nally planned on being a doctor, but not in the area of internal flows of heat transfer. “I used to say, ‘I will be a medical doctor and help everybody’ when I was young,” Abdelmessih says. She originally wanted to be a medical doctor until she realized in middle school that people indeed die, and that doctors cannot heal everybody. She cannot stand to see people in pain, so decided to focus on other talents.

Abdelmessih was always the top of her class when it came to math. Egypt issues a national exam, and students can make choices for their higher education based on their to-tal score. At the time, engineering schools took the highest. Abdelm-essih received her bachelor’s degree from her school of choice, Alexan-dria University. The engineering program was made up of all tech-nical courses, giving her two and a half times the credit hours of what is required in the United States. After obtaining her degree, Ab-

delmessih went into the paper in-dustry and entered the real world. “I was overprotected as a child,” she explained. Abdelmessih grew up with equal rights in her home, and her parents were always very supportive of her education. In a time and place where women were generally thought of as lesser than their male counterparts, her parents were truly ahead of their time in raising her. “When I decided to get my degree

See NASA, Page B2

Internationally renowned artist wows attendees

Krinda CarlsonStaff Writer

Researcher for NASA makes a difference in Engineering Department

Photo by Nick Harvey

See GUITAR, Page B1

NEWSB1

MARCH IN REVIEWChristopher Gentile - Staff Writer

World Wide United States

MARCH 2010 SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

Deficit forecasted to increase $100 Billion this year (Jack Calmes, NYTimes)

Yale University, facing a $150 mil-lion budget deficit, is planning cut staff and freeze salaries along with reducing graduate students attend-ing (Lisa Foderaro, NYTimes)

Google seeks aid of the National Security Agency for assistance with regards to cyberattacks to his cyber security last year (John Mar-koff, NYTimes)

Gunmen open up fire on house in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, killing 13 high school students (Elisabeth Malkin, NYTimes)

U.S. finishes in first for medal count in the 2010 Winter Olympics with 37, Germany next with 30, and Canada third with 26.

In Afghanistan, weather caused 17 avalanches, burying more than two miles of highway in the Hindu Kush mountain range (Rod Norland, NY-Times)

GUITAR, From cover

it did not seem quite right. The man mounted the raised platform and sat down. It than became clear what had been bothering the few audience members who came to the concert not knowing what to ex-pect—the guitar had twelve strings instead of the usual six, and stick-ing out of the bottom was a long metal end pin. Then, to make things even more unusual, Galbraith set the guitar upright, and placed the bottom of the end-pin into a notch carved into the small wooden box with f-holes. Galbraith was hold-ing his guitar like a cello, and the box with f-holes was specifically designed to help amplify the sound from the unusual instrument. All of the unconventional parts of the instrument were forgotten as Gal-

braith took in a deep breath, raised his hands, and then began to play. Galbraith’s repertoire was diverse and satisfying: Galbraith started out the evening with Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G (transposed to D) and after the first of six move-ments were complete, no one could remember that this is not the way guitars are traditionally played. After J.S. Bach, Galbraith played Luciano Berio and Mario Casteln-uovo-Tedesco. Just as efficiently as he began, Galbraith left the stage for intermission. The lights came up, and it took a few minutes for the audience to wake up from the trance Galbraith had left them in and to make the mad dash to the re-stroom. Even there the conversation was on one subject and one subject only: how incredibly talented Paul Galbraith’s performance was.

A quick look at the program before the second half resumed re-inforced what everyone had been saying. Galbraith had been nomi-nated for a Grammy for one of his CDs, and the same CD had reached the TOP 10 on Billboard’s classical charts. Galbraith has been featured on NPR numerous times, played in Lincoln Center’s “Great Perfor-mances,” played sold-out recitals in over 19 states, over 13 countries, and won several prominent awards and played with some of the most prestigious orchestras in Europe, only 11 of which were listed. The second half of his concert was just as compelling. Galbraith opened with a Haydn keyboard sonata, and closed with Manuel Ponce’s Variations and Fugue on “La Folia,” and then, as if that wasn’t enough, Galbraith re-

turned to play an encore piece just as difficult as the rest of his reper-toire. As the lights came on a final time, the audience’s applause lasted over five minutes. “I can’t believe we got to see that for free,” the same woman from before said to her friend. A man behind her heard the conver-sation and joined in, “I have all of his CDs and I’ve been waiting for a chance to see him in concert for years!” Hundreds of similar conver-sations were echoed all around the abbey. The only downside was that so few students attended this amaz-ing free performance in their back-yard. The next Abbey Church event will be at 8:00 p.m. on Sat-urday, April 24 featuring pianist Tanya Gabrielian and is again free admission .

Freshmen Count: Mike Vandehay

Freshmen Countess:Kelsey Thompson

Sophomore Baron:

Brady BomberSophomore Baroness:

Niki Sanich

Junior Duke: Ahmadou Seck

Junior Duchess:Marisha Kasjan

Senior Prince:John Jentzen

Senior Princess:Melissa Archuleta

KING:

Nick BakerQUEEN:

Maryanne Alexander

Homecoming Court 2010:

Photo by Jessica Jenkins/ Guest Photographer

Career Services• Online job search – Saints4Hire www.stmartin.edu/careercenter and

click the student links. • Resume and Cover Letter preparation• Annual Career and Internship Fair (April 13, 2010) and Fall Account-

ing/Engineering Career Fair• Separate career events as requested by clubs (Etiquette dinner – March

2, mock interview demo, resume/interview workshops, employer pan-els – e.g. State Farm on Feb. 18)

• Interview Tips• Help with job search• Career exploration tools - MyPlan includes 4 assessments (personal-

ity, skills, values and interests)• Information Interview assistance and referrals• Alumni Mentors• Employer Directories (online on Saints4Hire, and previous year’s Ca-

reer Fair book)• Resource Library• Handouts on “What Can I Do with This Major?”

Contact Ann Adams, Director * Old Main 247 aadams@stmartin.edu * (360) 486-8842

NEWS B2MARCH 2010SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

NASA, From cover

in engineering, my aunt took me aside and told me that engineering was not adequate for girls. She said that nice girls go into Eng-lish Literature.” Abdelmes-sih soon realized that her aunt was not the only person who thought this way. As she entered the work place, she came to see that she would have to prove herself to earn male respect. At the time, women in Egypt were not allowed to work after 9:00 p.m., so the company could only employ her for the morning shift. Everyone was unhappy that they had hired a woman who could not work the majority of the time. “The laborers were not used to women, and it was obvious they did not want me there,” she says. “Workers considered wom-en as slaves or possessions.” Luckily, her parents taught her to have respect for her elders, and she learned on the job to take care of her own problems and not com-plain about the way she was treated by the men. After a year, they treated her with respect, and one of the workers even named their daughter after Amanie, giv-ing her the best compliment she has ever received. After awhile, Ab-delmessih became bored. She began taking classes towards gaining her mas-ter’s degree in the evenings while still working full time. She continued to work hard to prove herself as a female so that she was not looked over. After she gained her degree, she had to make a choice: she could keep fighting to become CEO of the paper company in order to prove that women are ca-pable, or keep studying to-wards her PhD. “I decided that I wanted to do something I enjoy instead of proving to others that I am capable.” However, her journey from Egypt to Saint Martin’s would prove how capable she truly is. Abdelmessih ap-plied to Oklahoma State University so that she could study with an internation-ally famous professor under a research assistantship to help pay for her doctorate. However, research money

was scarce, and the chair-man offered her a teaching assistant position when the money ran out. “I used to think teaching was boring,” she says. “But it was the first time in my life that I real-ized I could make a differ-ence.” Abdelmessih de-cided that teaching was her calling, and wanted to find work in California in order to be closer to her family, who had also moved to the United States. She ended up at Northrop University in Inglewood. She began teaching a graduate course, and then was hired full time until the school was unfor-tunately shut down due to financial difficulties. How-ever, it was this event that led her to Saint Martin’s. Saint Martin’s, a college at the time, was searching for reputable fac-ulty for their thermal engi-neering classes. Although the resources seemed small to Abdelmessih, she decided to give the school a try. She was immedi-ately impressed by the students on her visit, who paid much attention to her presentation and asked intelli-gent questions. “I also liked the setting here. It’s pretty and safe,” she said. “A number of things attracted me.” Luckily for Saint Martin’s engineers she took the job. D u r i n g several summers she has researched for NASA at the Dryden Flight Re-search Center “nu-merically studying high temperature black body cavity/ water cooled heat flux gages, heat transfer environ-mental character-ization of high tem-perature furnace calibrator” and other things that makes an English major’s head spin. She has received NASA certificates of recognition for her research con-tributions in 1991,

1992, 1998, 2005 and 2007. She has been published over 20 times, is a faculty member of the Saint Mar-tin’s University Society of

Fellows, and given the Na-tional Distinguished Engi-neering Educator Award by the Society of Women Engi-neers last semester.

However, as deco-rated as Dr. Abdelmessih is, she tells me that the most exciting part of her story is the work of her Saint Mar-tin’s students. Each year the senior class of the Mechani-cal Engineering Department must put together a final project, and when Dr. Ab-delmessih is given the op-portunity to teach a senior design class, if the project is good enough, she will get it published. She fights for grants so that students are able to build contraptions such as instrumented air conditioning bench experi-ments, computer assisted instructional aides for heat transfer, or currently, ef-ficient dryers for the paper industry. In 2006-2007, her students designed and built a heat flux simulator that is currently used for research at NASA. It is obvious that Dr. Amanie Abdelmessih truly has made a difference for the students at Saint Martin’s University.Photo by Ninalynn BenitezDr. Amanie Abdelmessih

SPORTSC1MARCH 2010 SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

Brandon JonesSports Editor

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Experienced Saints baseball team off to rocky start

The Saint Martin’s Univer-sity Baseball team was possibly the biggest surprise in the GNAC last year; finishing 22-30 (15-16) to fin-ish third in the conference. Also, considering the fact that they had been picked to finish last, it was an even bigger surprise to find them battling for first-place mid-way through the season. The Saints hope to bring some of that magic back this year, but so far, things have been a bit rough. Thus far, the Saints are 3-9 on the year, but should be happy with their result over Central Wash-ington University (a GNAC oppo-nent) whom they played in tourna-ment play in Idaho. This was a telling 10-3 win for the Saints as CWU was picked to finish in second place, one spot ahead of SMU, in a 2010 GNAC

coaches poll. The Saints gave solid efforts hitting and pitching in the win, but it was the fact that they took advan-tage of a few costly Central errors that really put the game in SMU’s bag. The Saint’s got things start-ed in the first-inning as lead off hit-ter Andrew Elke singled to third base on a bunt. After a fielder’s choice, Aaron Johnson doubled down the left field line to advance Cody Brooks to third. Travis Jones drove in the first run of the game with a single through the right side. Blaine Evans laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Jones and make the game 2-0 in the first. Central answered back with a run in the bottom of the inning, but SMU took advantage of a costly throwing error to take the lead back in the second. Both teams went score-less until the sixth-inning when the Saints erupted for five runs.

Michael McIver led the in-ning off and reached first on a field-ing error. With one out and pinch runner Adam Hudspeth in the game, Bobby Twedt singled to right field, advancing Hudspeth to third. Zach Leonard was walked to load the bases with one out and a ground out brought Hudspeth home to make the game 4-1. Brooks then doubled down the left field line to score two more. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, Brooks scored on a double by Johnson. Jones then singled to right field driving in a run and giving the saints a 7-1 lead. The rest of the game went smoothly for the Saints, but things have not been so easy over the en-tire season thus far. However, a 21-7 thrashing of Seattle Univer-sity should instill some confidence in the Saints as individual perfor-mances begin to stand out. Johnson has a .375 batting average on the year, good enough

for sixth best in the conference. He also leads the GNAC in walks, home runs, runs scored and RBI. As a team, the Saints have the highest on-base percentage in the GNAC at .398. The Saints also have the most RBI in the league at 70, coming in second in hits and runs scored. The Saints have also been walked a league-leading 63 times, the next highest is 38. Despite the high volume scoring, SMU has left much to be desired on the bases. They lead the GNAC in runners left on base with 106. The Saints’ pitching staff has struggled a bit as they move for-ward into the season. The SMU staff has the most losses in the GNAC and rarely cracks the top three in any category. If SMU wants to fin-ish in the top two in the GNAC, it will take continued offensive fire-power and an improved pitching staff to propel the Saints forward. Luckily, the year is still young.

SMU Softball hopes for more in 2010More experienced team could bring success to Saints program

Brandon JonesSports Editor

There is no doubt that the SMU softball program has been strug-gling for a while now. Multiple losing seasons have added up in the past few years, but there is a sign of hope. The Saints, who may have had the youngest team in the GNAC last year, return all but two key players for the 2010 season. Many of the Saints’ young stars like Morgan Klemm and Kris-tine Kaneshiro are back for another round, more experienced and ready to take on a bigger role for SMU. The Saints are 3-6 over-all this year and 2-2 in conference play. Last year, the Saints scraped together a 16-27 (14-25) record. One which can easily be bested in 2010. The Saints can at least take comfort in the fact they return some of the top players in the GNAC. Klemm leads the group and was the Saints only first-team all star selection. Klemm had the seventh highest average in the conference at .344 and hit seven home runs and drove in 22 runs total. Klemm is joined by other top teammates Kaneshiro, Bran-di Klemm, and Kristi Sigafoos. Kaneshiro was the tenth best hitter in the conference with a .325 aver-age, knocking in 25 RBI. Brandi Klemm was solid at the plate as well, batting .308 while anchoring the Saints pitching staff. Thus far, it has been a fresh-man that has surprise opponents.

Joslyn Eugenio has come on strong for the Saints early in the season and has set the tone at the plate batting a team high .367. Eugenio has shown some speed on the base paths as she also leads the team with four doubles on the year while tak-ing the bulk of the workload in the circle for the Saints. Eugenio has pitched 25.2 innings this year and is 1-2 overall. Opponents are now a bit more weary of Morgan Klemm, but her numbers have not been affected too much. She leads the GNAC in RBI with eight and is tied for the home run lead at two. Amanda Arnzen has stepped up this year as she is ranked third amongst pitchers in opponent bat-ting average. Arnzen is also fifth in the GNAC with nine strikeouts. There is no doubt that the SMU bats are hot. With strong hit-ters like Klemm, Kaneshiro and Eu-genio, the Saints should not suffer from a shortage of offense. As of March 1, the Saints are first in runs scored, hits, and home runs in the GNAC. Where they are clearly struggling is in the pitching department. With a team ERA of 3.92, the Saints are second to last in the conference. In order for the pitch-ing staff to get better, the Saints will need to be stronger in the field as they have the lowest fielding per-centage in the GNAC.

Tough basketball season at a closeBoth teams struggle through GNAC competition

It was a tough season for SMU basketball players and fans this year as both teams struggled to gain footing in the GNAC all year. With only a couple games left on the schedule, both teams will look to better their records and fin-ish strong, despite somewhat disap-pointing seasons. The women’s team will fin-ish with a losing record, both over-all and in conference. They did do quite well at home this year, racking up an 8-5 record. The team was led by Dara Zack who had a monster

year. Zack averaged 16 points per game along with a league leading 8.8 rebounds. She was fifth in the conference in assists. On the men’s side, things were not too bad seeing as the Saints lost so many key players last year. This season they are 14-11 overall, but 4-10 in conference. The Saints have not won an away game all season which does not bode well as their last two games are on the road. Blake Poole led the Saints this year and was one of the top

players in the con-ference. Poole av-eraged league highs with 20.8 ppg and a huge 12.8 rebounds per game. The only player to average a double-double in the conference. Though the Saints may have had a difficult year, both teams are very young and will benefit from the playing time received this year. With two of the best players in their respective confer-ences in Zack and Poole, the Saints will have plenty to look forward to next year as they chase the GNAC title.

C2MARCH 2010SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

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The lights dimmed. The stage was set as an office with three bookshelves to the right shoulder of the audience with a light pink arm chair pushed against the bookshelf. To the left of the bookshelves, there is the entrance to the office with an office desk to the left of the entrance with a brown folder and other per-sonal artifacts on the desk. The first scene Stephanie (current student Olivia Baumgartner) comes in on a wheelchair while Dr. Feldman (graduate Matthew Pritchard) sits himself behind his desk. Through-out the whole play has the conver-sation between the doctor and the patient of the patient’s disease and how to manage with being a handi-cap for the rest of her life and not being able do what she loves, play the violin, ever again. “Duet for One” is the un-fortunate tale of Stephanie Abra-hams, a violinist struck with Mul-tiple Sclerosis who tragically slips into the depths of depression. Like a movie, the play follows her with its own lenses as Abraham struggles with her battle against her disease

and, in the end, struggles against herself. After watching the perfor-mance, freshmen Jennifer Montufar stated “the first part of it was in-teresting, but watching two people throughout the play was – I don’t know how to explain it – not bor-ing. The second part, after the in-

termission, was very interesting after their tones changed. It kept me awake and in tune. I kept laugh-ing and couldn’t look away. Also, the actors were amazing! They did a good job!” This gives credit to junior Emilie Schnabel for putting together such a thoughtful rendi-tion to the original play written by

award-winning British playwright Tom Kempinski. Schnabel, Baumgartner and Pritchard did a wonderful job of capturing the emotion and troubles of one with MS as we learn that the woman must give up something that is not just an instrument or a hobby, but what has defined her life.

Elena LarsonStaff Writer

Schnabel’s rendition of “Duet for One” proves success

Photo by Ninalynn BenitezThe cast of “Duet for One” recapture the famous work of Tom Kempinski

HEALTHD1MARCH 2010 SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

Soul SolutionsFLYING, FAITH, AND FALLING

Krinda CarlsonStaff Writer

Sometimes I think I can fly. Like the smell of homemade bread, flying tempts me to be dar-ing and sample it. Sampling has its risks. (Note: I’m mildly allergic to flour). When I’m feeling kamika-ze-ish, I do it anyway. The earliest I remember attempt-ing to fly was when I was five. I put on my little sister’s diapers – two for extra padding. My fam-ily’s deck, at the time, was multi-leveled. I fast-waddled to the top of the three stairs and jumped like a cannon-baller, “Gravity, be de-fied!” I hovered in the air. Then, fell. On the descent, I kicked my stubby legs out to form an “L” shape and thumped full-force onto my bum. I should have put on a few more diapers. I kept this up for a good ten minutes…until my mom found me. I was in grade-school when I played my next extreme-flying sport. My siblings and I had a rope swing tied to a tall pine. To use the swing, we had to climb a meteor-sized rock. The true way to play was to grab the tail at the bottom, sprint to the left edge of the rock, and shove off. Whoosh. I would soar out and around. Feet dan-gling. Body twisting. Hands burn-ing. Tree branches approaching! A wreck was in store if I didn’t re-lease before the swing completed a half-circle. So, I let go. It was a good ten feet down. I never con-sidered potential leg-breaks. My momentum would tuck me into a roll on the ground. By the time I popped up, pine-needles were my new hair-extensions and dirt lay-ered my clothing. It was wonder-ful! I did this every week for a solid four months. My newest flying obsession involves roller-coasters. The ulti-mate, thus far, is the Dueling Drag-ons at Universal Studio’s Island of Adventure. It is one of those in-verted roller coasters where your feet hang down. When I visited

the theme park last winter, I rode in the very front. The coaster chink-chinked to the top. Then plunged down, hurtling me through the air at 55 miles per hour. Now this was flying! I rode it until the park was almost closed. After these flights, it wasn’t my body that fell, it was my stomach. As I’ve discovered, flying requires flinging myself out and risking the fall. This makes flying a perfect metaphor for faith. Often, I want to live a “safe” faith and not risk falling. I’m sure many agree that, at times, having faith in God is scary: what if He asks me to give up something I don’t want to? What if He asks me to do something I’m frightened of? What if I can’t “get it right” and I fall down? But, if we’re always afraid of downs in life, we never really experience the ups; we can’t enjoy the exhilaration of faith if all we think about is fall-ing. If we choose to believe in God but don’t throw ourselves fully in, not only do we miss the experience of what it feels like to soar, but we don’t know where to look when the gravity of life drags us down, hard. Even when we’re at the lowest point of our lives, faith gives us a place to direct our focus – upwards, to where God offers His hand. In Matthew 14, a man named Peter is sitting safely in a boat and sees Jesus walking on the water. Jesus invites Peter to join Him, and Peter throws himself out of the boat in faith. Peter walks on water! But, the minute he starts to fear going down, he begins to sink. In this moment of falling, Peter knows to look upward, where the hand of Je-sus reaches down. Peter grasps the hand, and is lifted once more. Sure, he fell, but he had the faith enough to fling himself out, and so he expe-rienced the exhilaration of walking on water! What if Peter hadn’t taken the risk? What if I’d never risked falling? What if you don’t risk flinging yourself into faith? Then, we all risk missing life’s mo-ments of soaring.

GARDEN, From cover

es and community businesses will donate some seeds and plants to get the project started. “Bon Appetite has ex-pressed interest in working with us…possibly using some of the fresh produce,” and the Committee has considered using some of the food as an outreach to soup kitch-ens. The community garden hopes to improve Saint Martin’s in three major ways: benefiting the en-

Sexting. Urban Diction-ary defines it has “a term created by the media referring to sending sexually explicit text messages and pictures.” Three Chinook Middle School students might describe it has the worst thing to ever happen to them in their young scholastic careers. These three students, who were formally charged with felo-nies for sexting in Juvenile Court on January 28 2010, are thanking their lucky stars because on February 17, a juvenile prosecutor reduced the charges to misdemeanors of tele-phone harassment. These lesser misdemeanors can also be avoided if the students complete juvenile di-version program. However, the re-duction in charges has some people calling fowl. The original incident stemmed from three Chinook Middle School students circulating explicit photos of a fourteen year old girl. The three perpetrators at the heart of this incident are one 14-year-old boy, and surprisingly, two 13-year-old girls. A girl sent a nude photo to her ex-boyfriend (14 year old boy charged), who then sent it to one of the 13-year-old girls. With the neutral power of technol-ogy, these photos made there away from North Thurston High School, Olympia High School, and beyond. Originally, the three students were charged with felonies and with these serious charges would come serious ramifications. As class C felonies, the students could have spent up to 30 years in juvenile detention and have to register as sex offenders for life. Completing a “diversion” program must seem like much less daunting solution for students. Parents of the students of Chinook Middle School must have of a lot of questions for their chil-dren when they received an auto-mated phone message and a letter

in regards to the sexting incident. School Principal Kristen Rae told parents: “We care deeply about the students and community that we serve, and appreciate your sup-port as we educate our students about this issue. Please use this as an opportunity to talk about proper cell phone use and potential conse-quences with your student as well.” Charges have been dramati-cally reduced in part of the lack of legislation in regards to sexting. Thurston County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Rick Peters defended his decision to reduced charges saying: “the technology is ahead of the leg-islation.” It is a new phenomenon in terms of our countries youth and crime. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Un-planned Pregnancy, 20 percent of 1,280 surveyed teens admitted to participating in nude and semi-nude acts of sexting. The school district has done its job notifying parents and educating students. However, the point must be hammered in to young teens that this is a crime. What makes sexting cases complicated is that the lines of vic-tim and perpetrator are blurred. The girl who originally took the photo needs to be held accountable for her poor decisions. However, she in no way asked for them to be circulated to all the school districts in the area. The incident at Chinook Middle School is only one example of this rapidly growing, perverse is-sue spreading through our nation’s youth, and with the help of parents, educators, and specific sexting leg-islation, this issue will be eradi-cated. MTV has taken on the is-sue with anti-sexting commercials. However, they come off as more of an unintentionally hysterical pub-lic service announcement than an effective one. Tween celebrities also need to step up. (Don’t think we forget about you, High School Musical star and amateur photogra-pher, Vanessa Hudgens).

vironment, saving money for the school and providing fresh, healthy food for students. “A key component to get the garden project going is involve-ment from students,” Gendelman asserted. Students can gain more information or send the Sustainabil-ity Committee ideas through Irina Gendelman’s email, or log onto the group’s blog, run by student Amanda Hatman, called Sustain-able Saints (http://sustainablesaints.blogspot.com/).

Several future projects have been discussed under the conserva-tion and transpiration subcommit-tees of the Sustainability Commit-tee. One includes building covered biking areas on campus to encour-age faculty, staff and students to bike places more often. Also, the Committee would like to begin a zip-car program. This would in-volve a system of shared cars which students could sign up to rent, pay-

ing an hourly fee. Some big dreams include implementing a rainwater collection system and solar pan-els on campus. However, the first step to build off is beginning the community garden. According to Hatman’s Sustainable Saints blog, “The garden is also an excellent fit with the Benedictine philosophy of environmental stewardship, com-munity and labor.”

Sexting takes teen world by stormGary FiorinaStaff Writer

Three Chinook students face misdemeanor charges for texting

VOICES

"Not a movie for atheists. Richard Dawkins would probably insist on a refund," says Rotten To-matoes reviewer, James O'Ehley of fantastiqueZINE. Reviews for "The Book of Eli," which features such headliners as Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman, did not look good. Besides being yet another in a string of post-apocalyptic films from Hollywood (Some predeces-sors include last years "2012," and Jackson's lauded "District 9"), Eli was pitted against its own Goliath with Cameron's runaway smash-hit "Avatar." Eli didn't win this one. "The Book of Eli" reported grossing $88.9, to "Avatar's" $237 (2012: 167 m, "District 9": 115.6 m). Washing-ton and Denzel, both stars in their own right, though lending splen-did performances, could not save the film from its January release date. Following in the wake of such Holiday releases as the latest Chip-munk film, "Sherlock Holmes," the much talked about Baldwin and Streep collaboration "It's Compli-cated," and of course "Avatar," Eli faced yet another desert wasteland beyond the screen: the January the-ater. With everyone back to work, school, budgets blown out, and new resolutions, January has a history of poor sales for even the best of films. Eli was unfortunately no exception. The movie takes place thirty years after a final devastating war where Eli (Denzel) wanders across the broken and bare desert that was once unified and identifiable states. Long emptied cities, forgotten about highways, blinding and unforgiving sun, and bandits who would kill a man for whatever he is carrying or no reason at all, his only compan-ions. But Eli is not your ordinary transient. Cutting down any would-be gangs of muggers before they even realize what hit them, he pro-tects something far more valuable than his own existence. Spurred and directed by his belief in something greater, Eli is a cockroach among Earth's last survivors. Only one man in this new dystopia realizes the power Eli wields. Carnegie (Oldman), self ap-pointed dictator of an improvised town of thieves and mobsters, sees Eli and his charge as opportunity to manipulate the weak and younger survivors as well as extend the reaches and power of his empire, and is determined to seize it at any cost. Don't let the sales fool you, Eli, despite its misguided release, is a definite must see for everyone (besides Richard Dawkins).

Earlier this semester I had to go print something out in the library. It was about a quarter to nine on a Sunday. I went downstairs, and log into a computer, which spared no time in telling me it would log me off automatically in ten minutes. I wondered why the computer was logging me off when we have over two hours before closing. That's when Matt Gochenouer, who used to work at the library, told me the li-brary got rid of the only person who was willing to stay until 11:00 p.m. on Sundays. Now, this seems very odd to me, because I didn't know the library runs like this. I've always thought the li-

D2MARCH 2010SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

brary's hours were too inconsistent. It closes at 5:00 p.m. on Fridays, which is frustrating because there have been times before where I need to print something out and the library is closed six hours before it usually does. SIX HOURS. No one up there is willing to work at least until 9:00 p.m. on Fridays? I know it's the start of the weekend and many people have plans, but isn't the library there for us to get work done in? I'm sorry, but if you work in the library, then you have to do your job. If you worked in an office the worked from 9:00 to 5:00, you wouldn't say, "I'm only willing to work until 3." It's not like

people wouldn't be in the library if it stayed open until 11:00 p.m. ev-ery day. I've never found it empty. Student are always in there doing homework. I was in the library this past Sunday, and with about 10 minutes till 9:00 p.m., there were at least a dozen people still sitting at the computers. If there is only one person in the entire staff who would stay until 11:00 p.m. on weekends, then what happened to that person? I don't know the answer to this, but something tells me it's something annoying... AnonymousDo you have your own rant or would like to respond? Email us at SMUBelltower@

stmartin.edu

The Book of Eli:A must see

Amanda HatmanStaff Writer

Inconsistent hours finally takes toll as library kicks

students out too earlyStudent

Rant

VOICESMARCH 2010 SAINT MARTIN’S UNIVERSITY

Role of the advisor: The advisor is a journalist, educator, and manager who is, above all, a role model. The advisor’s ultimate goal is to mold, preserve and protect an ethical and educational environment, not to

monitor the final content of the student newspaper.Belltower Advisor: Julie Yamamoto

For questions, comments, or suggestions, send an email to Belltower@stmartin.edu, drop a note by room 175, or visit our

Facebook page!

Our Mission: As fellow students at Saint Martin’s Universi-ty, our staff is constantly working to keep you up to date on what is going on around campus, our community, and throughout the world. Our newspaper will provide information that is valuable to our campus and especially to students at SMU. We will nev-er back down from taking on any issue at our school and prom-ise to give our best efforts to keep the community informed.

Staff Writers:Krinda CarlsonGary FiorinaChristopher GentileAmanda Hatman

Letters to Coco

THE BELLTOWER STAFFJacob KindermanElena LarsonChanell SagonEmilie Schnabel

Layout Editor:Nick Harvey

Photographer:Ninalynn Benitez

Editor-in-Chief:Katie Hawkins

Sports Editor:Brandon Jones

Business Manager:Jamey Gelhar

THAT DON’T MAKE SENSE!!! Jake Kinderman

Staff Writer

The opening of the new rec-reation center has sparked a new inspiration for student fitness and sports activities. It is lined with new cardio equipment, weight train-ing facilities and an indoor track to shave off that fes-tively plump physique we all gained from the holi-days. This leads me to won-der why, set among all the new fitness facilities and equipment, is there vending machines filled with soda and candy?! Since one 20 oz bottle of Coca-cola has 240 calories and over 70 grams of sugar in it, one would think that it would not be the first beverage a “Saint Martathlete” seeks after a pick-up basketball game or a good stint on the ellipti-cal. Drinking a soda before, during, or after a workout is like hunting for Lion in the Serengeti with a fun noodle. It just doesn’t make sense.

SODA IN THE REC CENTER

M A C I N - T R A S H TALK

Why does the IT office hate Macintosh computers so much? SMU Mac owners will recognize the following scenario: You walk into the IT office because the wire-less has gone down...again. The tech person notices you have a Mac with you and startles you with a judging stare. You peacefully inquire about the wireless situation and the IT person decides they need to enlighten you on the superiority of a PC over a Mac. They continue to explain that on a Mac you are not able to hack into the pentagon, measure the dis-tance between a computer

Talk about stupid parents. No wonder so many kids today have such attitudes,

programmer and their next pocket or keep track of the temperature of the sun. As you are pretending to listen you look around at all the broken computers in the IT office, which happen to be PCs. Doesn’t it seem a bit foolish that an IT employ-ee tries to convince some-one that PC’s are superior when they are surrounded by a PC graveyard? Next time you decide to bash on a Mac, think about the 37 fire wall updates you need every few hours, how it takes six minutes for a stan-dard PC to start up, and fi-nally how there are over 1.1 MILLION different viruses written for windows and under 500 for Mac. If you choose to respond I recom-mend writing a note and mailing it because chances are your PC will just freeze, crash, and begin smoking when you open your e-mail.

PEOPLE WHO BRING BABIES TO RATED R MOVIES

bad mouths and general lack of respect for author-ity. I recently saw the new Martin Scorsese film “Shut-ter Island” the other week-end and a baby began to cry during a particularly dis-turbing scene. I vote mom and dad parents of the year. What decently intelligent person sees the preview for a new suspense/horror film that takes place in an insane asylum and decides their toddler needs to see it? Another example was during the recent superhero flick “Watchmen,” where during a graphic sex scene a man began leading his three children out of the theatre. Now this movie was extremely violent prior to this scene, and it doesn’t make sense that it was the nudity that drove the fam-ily out, not the excessive blood spattering across the screen for the hour leading up to it. New parents of the millennium need to get it together and not make un-believably stupid decisions like taking young children to traumatic movies. Stay home and watch “Night at the Museum” or something.

LION HUNTING WITH A FUN NOODLECARTOON BY JAKE KINDERMAN

My roommate and friend thinks that he is great at singing when that is not the fact. He sings constantly: in the shower, doing home-work, while cleaning, along with radio... I can't take it anymore! People have com-plained, but he isn't getting the hint. I ask him to keep it down sometimes because I'm trying to study or sleep, but he only keeps quiet for a day or so until she starts all over. He also says she wants to try out for American Idol, but I'm afraid he might end up on the first few episodes. I don't know what to say because I don't want to hurt his feelings.

Please help,Simon Cowell Fan

I told my roommate once that she could borrow a piece of my clothing, and now she takes my clothes without asking ALL THE TIME! I will be walking back to my dorm room from class and see her pass-ing by in a complete out-fit from my closet! I also see my clothes on the floor on her side of the room. I don't mind if she borrows a shirt or two at times, but she doesn't return them and throws them around the room... all without asking! I have told her that I appreci-ate it if she asks to borrow my things first, but she still walks around in my stuff as if they were her own, acting like it is no big deal.

Peeved and Pantless

Dear Simon Cowell Fan,You definitely need to put your foot down and explain to him the situation. Tell him is nicely that you need to study or you need to get work done and it's kind of distracting with all the noise and loud singing. Suggest places where it might be a more private to practice and where he would get less noise complaints! Say something like, "I know you really enjoy singing, but I know this place where there is even better acoustics, and it’s a great place to practice.” As far as the whole Ameri-can Idol thing goes, suggest to him to have a mock audi-tion first and share with him some suggestions that he can improve on. But if he still doesn't listen and still wants to try, we can see how far he gets past Mr. Cowell!

Coco

Dear Peeved and Pantless,She definitely needs a reali-ty check and come to realize she cannot keep doing this to you. Tell her that if she borrows them, to ask before, if she doesn’t listen, then tell her she needs to pay for the clothes she wears. She wants to treat your closet like a Macy’s then have her pay for what she uses. If talking to her and saying how you feel doesn’t work, you definitely need to talk to your RA about it or some-one in charge. You pay for the room and you pay for your clothes, and this situ-ation is a form of stealing. She is stepping outside of the boundaries and eventu-ally will make it miserable place to live in! Stand up girl!

Coco